A short History of English Literature

Chapter VI. The Romantic Period (the turn of the 18

th

 and 19

th

 century)

 

1. Social background: two important revolutions---the French Revolution of 1789-1794 

and the English Industrial Revolution 

2. Literature: The Romantic period is an age of poetry; Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, 

Shelly and Keats are the major Romantic poets; Prose writers and novelists 

 

*Romanticism---It designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see 

the individual as the very center of all life and all experience. It also places the 

individual at the center of art, making literature most valuable as an expression of his 

or her unique feelings and particular attitudes; Nature is not only the major source of 

poetic imagery, but also provides the dominant subject matter; Romantics also tend to 

be nationalistic. 

 

*lake poets---The poet Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey lived in the lake district. 

They traversed the same path in politics and in poetry, first inspired by French 

Revolution, later changed into conservative. 

 

*Wordsworth---his definition of poetry “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of the 

powerful feelings” and poetry originates from “emotion recollected in tranquility”; a 

nature poet; working in collaboration with Coleridge in 

Lyrical Ballads

. 

 

*Coleridge---“Kubla Khan”, “Christabel” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” 

 

*Byron---

Don Juan, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage 

 

*Shelley---

Prometheus Unbound

, “Ode to the West wind” 

 

*Keats---his mature and important odes, “ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode on a Grecian 

Urn”  

 

5

---

 

*prose writers---Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt, Thomas De Quincey and his “Confessions 

of an English Opium Eater”, Charles Lamb and his “Essays of Elia” 

 

*Jane Austen---love and marriage as the major themes of her novels; 

Pride and 

Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility

, etc. 

 

*Walter Scott---a romantic historical novelist,

 Ivanhoe